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The pros and cons of police siren |
Article Submitted by: Sunil Punjabi
Thursday, 25 February 2010
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Police sirens are used together with emergency lights on police vehicles to clear traffic and let the police proceed faster to restore law and order. While these are absolute necessities, exposure to the high decibel sounds of a police siren can have adverse impacts on health.
A police siren is a necessity and there is no argument about it. To warn other vehicles off the lane to let it proceed superfast, a siren is a must on a police vehicle. Emergency vehicle lights, however bright they are, can never do the warning job on their own. Drivers of other vehicles are alerted to the presence of a police vehicle by the sound of the police siren, before the lights become visible to them. Without the help of a siren, emergency vehicles are unlikely to be noticed on the road the way it should be. A police siren is also generally programmed to switch to a different and more intense sound pattern when they are nearing intersections or turning a corner. It normally stops on its own when the driver opens the doors and gets out of the vehicle. For better effect, some police vehicles use a manual siren along with the more common electronic police siren that is in use these days. Besides these, newer types of sirens known as howlers and rumblers are being introduced to further increase the effectiveness of a police siren. Howlers and rumblers alert the other drivers by vibrations that pass on to their vehicles even if the sound of the conventional siren is shut out by soundproofing or an active radio inside. While all these sounding patterns of a police siren, and the improvements that are being made on it, are its positivities, a police siren is not without its negativities. First of all, it adds to the existing cacophony of the streets and thus adds to noise pollution. And the wailing of sirens is inconvenient not just to pedestrians and passengers of other vehicles, but also to residents of the homes in all the areas through which the police vehicle will pass. One main health issue resulting from police siren sounds is the possible hearing impairment. The minute cells, which transmit sound waves to nerves, are highly sensitive to high decibel sound and could get damaged by exposure to it. When people are continuously exposed to the sound of a police siren, a few of these cells could get damaged, resulting in reduced hearing ability. While the public at large is at risk from this, the operators of police vehicles are under a very high level of risk of hearing impairment from sirens. Drivers of vehicles that have a concealed police siren are more at risk from this since such sirens typically reverberate pretty strongly inside the vehicle. Operators always use hearing protection aids but it is not always a foolproof remedy. Another negative effect of a police siren is that its sounds are likely to raise the blood pressure in some people while in others it could raise the heart beat rate. Both are obviously harmful in the long run. In places where a police siren wail is quite frequent, may be because of being a crime prone area, the sound interferes with the sleep of the entire community. Frequent disturbance of sleep is also a health hazard. Extreme Electrical Dynamics is a one-stop shop for police siren and many other items like Flashlights, Emergency Lights, Deck Lights, etc. Please visit the site for more details of various items available - http://www.extremetacticaldynamics.com/ Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com |
About The Author:
I am a Microsoft Certified Professional. I conduct Training and Certification Guidance for
Microsoft .Net Certification Courses through my training institute-Sierra Infotech. I also own and manage a
SEO Company and
article Directory.
I am a Microsoft Certified Professional. I conduct Training and Certification Guidance for
Microsoft .Net Certification Courses through my training institute-Sierra Infotech. I also own and manage a
SEO Company and
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